Government rules and policies, political and economic situation, business atmosphere such as number of competitors, or even a natural disaster could be considered as external factors that give effect to an insurance rate as well as the coverage. For example when the political situation is getting hot which might trigger some riots or civil commotions insurance companies will raise their rates since the risk factors are increasing, and they might lessen the extend coverage for RSCCTS (riot, strike, civil commotion, terrorism, and sabotage) or give an extra charge for the items. But if an insurance company finds a lot of competitors on the market selling the same insurance product, this could make the company lower their rate and sometimes offers a better coverage and service.
While the internal factors usually have something to do with the loss and profit of an insurance company. Let's say insurance company A provides auto insurance and homeowner insurance. Due to a catastrophic in one area, they have to pay out a large amount of homeowner insurance claims. To cover the loss over the homeowner insurance claims, the company may raise premiums for their auto insurance customers. But if the company is in a profitable year they might lower their rates to attract more customers. Beside that, certain record of costumers might also affect the insurance rate like credit history or driving record in the case of auto insurance.
Since there are so many factors that could affect the raise or decrease of insurance rates, we can be sure that there is no guarantee we will continue to receive the best rates from the time we signed with an insurance company. Like I said before, insurance rate is dynamically changes through time, so even if we still pay the same rate like the first time we signed with an insurance company or even lower than that, we still have a chance of getting a better insurance deal on the market.
To ensure we are getting the best rate, best is to make a regular review of our policy and then make a comparison against the offerings from other competing insurance companies. Not like in the past, when to obtain insurance quotes could take a lot of time and waste so much energy since we have to spend hours on the phone and having lots of meetings with different insurance agents, today we can easily get free insurance quotes from the internet. This could be done in a very short time, only by filling out the online questionnaire and without lifting the phone or leaving home, we already can obtain free insurance quotes from many different insurance companies.
We can get free insurance quotes from insurance company websites, insurance broker websites, or from any other insurance websites that have free insurance quotes tool. If we'd like to have a more detail information on coverage and services of an insurance product beside the rate, we can get a free insurance quote from insurance company websites. But this way, we're going to have to travel from website to website to get quotes from other insurance companies and also we have to fill the questionnaire form again and again. So if we'd like to save a little time and energy, we can get free insurance quotes from insurance consulting websites that offer free insurance quotes. We can easily find these websites by simply type "free insurance quotes" on the search engine, and we'll find hundreds of websites offering to give free insurance quotes. The best thing is we don't have to visit another websites to get insurance quotes from different insurance companies and usually we only have to fill the questionnaire form once. These kind of websites usually also give tips on how to get the best rate, coverage, and other insurance services.
To obtain sufficient information from free insurance quotes to be able to help us in making comparisons and determine which insurance company will we choose, here are some things should be noted:
o We must determine from which site we will ask for an insurance quote based on our needs. If we want more detailed information about coverage and services provided by an insurance company is better to directly ask for quotes from the insurance company's website. We should also do this if we want an insurance quote for specific types of insurance such as the antique car insurance which has many different aspects from the general car insurance. But if we wish to make a quick comparison and intend to more detailed information later on, we can go to any insurance site which provides a free insurance quote for many different insurance companies, and be sure we pick the site which has a large amount of insurance company database so we can have a lot of choices to compare.
o Determine what kind of coverage we really need and how much money we prepared, and what amounts of coverage needed to protect us. Because the insurance market is sometimes like a shopping mall that often tempt us with products that are irresistible, so we often fall and spend money on something that we don't really need.
o Fill the questionnaire form with accurate data, if we do not feel confident about what we have to fill in one column, it's better to ask or look for documents that can help us fill, in case of auto insurance maybe we can prepare the vehicle documents, driver license, and any related documents. If the insurance object is under insured, the policy's declarations page can help you a lot in filling the form. Answer all the questions in the form truly and don't hide anything, this is the only way for us to obtain an accurate quote.
o Ask free insurance quotes from at least three different companies to be able to get more alternatives. If we ask for quotes from different sites, make sure to enter exactly the same information so that we can get a balanced comparison.
o Do some experiments by changing information or value in various fields that can affect insurance rates and consider the results of the calculation to see which one best suits our needs and budget, then do the same thing with quotes from other insurance companies in order to make comparisons. For example, generally if we increase the deductible value and decrease the amount coverage then we shall have a lower rate. Or in case of auto insurance, number of drivers and average mileage can also affect the rate. But please notice that there are some fields which also affect the rate that we cannot change like driving record in case of auto insurance or health record in case of health insurance otherwise we won't get an accurate quote.
After getting a rate quote that suits our needs and budget, we can continue to do a further check to the insurance company and the insurance plan. Remember, that the cheapest quote doesn't necessarily mean you will get the best value on your coverage and good coverage doesn't always come from a big company. Here are what we have to do after getting rate quotes:
o Look beyond the amount of money to what the coverage actually covers. Pay attention to the several other factors that could affect the claim process and payment as well as the length of the claim process, also find out what is not covered in the policy exclusions. We can get the information on the website if it's available there or best is to contact the insurance agent to get more sufficient comprehensive information.
o Check the history and reputation of the company, since having insurance covers from an experienced and reputable company can give us peace of mind. Find out whether they provide high quality costumer care or if there were complains about the company performance. we can find testimonials or experts review on an insurance company concerning these issues.
o There's nothing wrong to follow our instinct as long as we also use common sense in deciding which insurance company we should choose. We can go with the company that makes us feel most comfortable as long as it gives a nice rate and coverage based on the insurance quote. Pay attention if the agent or company representative able to answer all our coverage and policy questions or whether the agent treat you with courteous and respect. After all, we always want to have insurance protection with the best rate and service.
After we have made our mind and choose one insurance company to insured us, we shouldn't stop trying to get more discounts or lower rate. Besides raising up the deductible amount which can give us up to 15-30% lower rate, there are still many other things that can lower the insurance rate such as:
o If the insurance company handles a wide range of insurance products consider having all our insurance provided by this company, this will give us a great discount on our premiums.
o In the case of auto or homeowners' insurance, ask the company about multi-family price reductions for coverage. If there is a price reduction, consider to purchase multi-family over a single type of insurance from the company. We can also get discount by having well-security system for the vehicle / house.
o We can also choose to make annual premium payment to save money. That's because most insurance companies do charge a service fee if we make quarterly or monthly payments since this increases the risk that we won't pay the next month. Some insurance companies don't charge these fees but do give us a discount if we pay our entire premium in one lump sum. While that might seem too expensive of a bill to pay at once, we could always put back the amount of the monthly premiums into a savings account each month then we'd have the full amount to pay the yearly premium
After we have got the best coverage with the best rate, all we have to do is to keep it that way by avoiding things that can cause us to lose some protection and rate increases. For example, in case of auto insurance, we should be a safe driver, avoid accidents, and try to avoid making too much claims. As for homeowners' insurance, we can try to minimize our liability risks by placing fence around the pool or having adult supervision when anyone is at home. We might also consider small repairs yourself without making a claim.
